Abstract
IN all ages the welfare of a State must have been in a greater or less degree dependent on the development of its material resources and on the vigour and intelligence of its people; it is only in comparatively recent years, however, that recognition has been given to the fact that the State must leave nothing of this to chance, but must set itself deliberately by the use of scientific method to make the very best of its resources, and to increase the available vigour and intelligence of everyone within its borders. Not only so, but it must take suitable precautions that intelligence be universally trained, and be also duly organised so as to give the most effective and productive result. It is no longer enough that the State shall merely welcome and applaud a discoverer when he arises, or merely safeguard a private inventor from being fleeced; on the contrary, it must give of its substance to foster both discovery and invention, and must give legislative help to secure that inventions when made shall not be unfruitful through want of skilled labour or other hampering cause.
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Science and the State 1 . Nature 85, 221–223 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/085221b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/085221b0